Crystal Clarity
by KatGlebova
Summary: SORATO. Fluffy one-shot. Sora is going to a dance. With a date. And not just any date - the one and only Matt Ishida.


Disclaimer: Tragically, I do not own digimon or any related materials, characters, or snazzy creatures.

I decided to write a fluffy one-shot to open this account which I will - hopefully - actually write on. I am a major Sorato fan, so that will make up the majority of my work. J

* * *

A teenage girl stared critically at herself in the mirror before her. To anyone else who viewed her, she was quite attractive, if not exactly beautiful. She had a friendly character to her face, which made her seem very approachable. Fiery red hair complemented lightly tanned skin and eyes the strangest colour of cinnamon. In her own eyes, there was an inch to be taken off of the waist here, eyelashes which were just too stubby, and a pimple threatening to erupt in the centre of her chin. Real or not to a passer-by, they were completely real to the girl.

"Sora, that looks great on you!" Squealed a girl with distinctive pink hair. "You have to get it!"

"You think?" Sora stared uncertainly at the mirror again, pivoting to judge her appearance from all angles. "I think the back might look weird."

"Shut up! No way!" The pink-haired girl raised her hands as if to ward off the comments that made no sense to her. "Your skin actually tans, unlike mine, and you can show it off!"

"Thanks, Mimi," the other said sarcastically. "As dazzling as that compliment is, I'd love to see the reaction of someone who isn't completely biased for me." She tugged at a strand of her hair, and turned away from the mirror. "Do you think he'll like it?" Sora's tone changed, became more worried. This was obviously the real problem here, the exact reason why a normally quite confident girl was going to pieces.

"Unless he has like, zero taste, he's going to love it," Mimi gushed. "And seriously, in all his concerts he had the best clothes, so I don't think you need to worry about that anyways."

Sora stepped back into the change room, and talked from behind the door. "Lovely," she laughed. As nervous as she was making herself, her best friend always managed to say just the right thing. She wasn't exactly Shakespeare, but she still had a way with words. "You sure this is right for semi? Does anyone dress up, really?"

Mimi babbled on in response. "Yeah, it's going to be great. Anyways," Sora sighed inwardly; this could take a while. "I might ask Izzy to the dance next week. I was going to go with Jonathan, but then I found out what Jun knew about him, and, like, there was no way I was going to deal with that."

Wait. Back up. "Izzy?" Sora couldn't help but be a little shocked. Izzy was a very nice guy, with a heart of gold and a brain of platinum, but Mimi usually didn't value intellect as one of the main factors when deciding a boyfriend. "Since when do you have a thing for him?" Curiosity was eating at her.

"Since last week. He was totally sweet when he found out my ride had fallen through. He drove me home after cheerleading practice even though he had to wait for me." Mimi began flipping through the racks of clothing absently. "Even though he's not, like, cute in the usual ways, he's still kind of cute, don't you think?"

Sora could not honestly say she thought so too, but instead decided to bite her tongue. She liked Izzy, and this would be a pleasant change from Mimi's constant stream of boyfriends. Each of them seemed to last less time than the last; most of Mimi's relationships were based from physical attraction rather than personalities that worked well together. Sora stepped out of the change room to see Mimi contemplating another dress. "Don't you have enough of them already?" she joked. She had seen Mimi's closet, and it bordered on terrifying. Massive, walk in, and exploding at the seams - no pun intended - with clothes. Sora shifted her weight over to her hip, and looked at Mimi with a cross between amazement and vague horror.

Mimi laughed at her expression. "Never enough. You do realize fashions change every season, right?"

This was an inside joke of sorts. Sora had recently decided she was going to pursue fashion design as a career, which surprised Sora and amused Mimi. Her friend argued she wasn't adaptable to survive in the fashion world, and Sora retorted that she would provide fashions strong enough to resist the fickle ways of the fashion industry. Their argument was light-hearted, as most of theirs' were.

Sora paid for her dress, and Mimi again offered compliments that Sora blushed while accepting. "Matt is going to drool, you know," Mimi quipped, a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

"What are you planning?" Sora had seen this look before. Usually, it was followed by something Mimi would consider dazzling and Sora would view as unfortunate, if not terrible.

"Oh, the usual. World domination." Mimi never told anyone anything useful when she was in one of her moods - Sora was amazed that she would still try.

"You're planning _Extreme Makeover: Sora Edition_, aren't you?" She guessed. The look that Mimi tried to hide told Sora everything she needed to know. "Ah." Mimi was the strongest advocate about her friend's apparent beauty, and Sora loved her for it. Sometimes she wanted to strangle her for it. You can't have everything.

"It'll be fun," Mimi pleaded. "Think of the guys' faces!"

This was a tempting thought. As much as Sora believed that what was inside was more important than out, being attractive was a deathly temptation she couldn't ignore. And if Matt really liked it, then it would all be worth it, wouldn't it? Sora bit her lip. "Maybe," she allowed.

Mimi knew she had won. "Thank you!" The squeal was loud, and Mimi pounced on her friend, giving her a big hug. Sora tried to seem bored and irritated, but the act fooled no one. "So we go home tomorrow after school and get you ready right away! The more time I have to work, the better."

Sora didn't know whether to be offended or amused. Mimi didn't actually mean she thought Sora needed a lot of work, but it had come across that way. "Thanks," she quipped, sounding more angry than she had intended. Maybe it was the cliché about the hair, but Sora had a fiery temper with a tongue to match. Mimi's face did not change in the slightest; she was used to Sora's flare ups, and was one of the few lucky people in the world who frankly didn't rise to temptation of anger. Mimi could explode occasionally, but that required something a little more personally damaging.

"You know what I meant," she remarked casually, and headed towards an accessory store. Sora, realizing that holding a grudge would do no good when dealing with the pink force of doom, followed, feeling pathetic and slightly repentant for snapping at Mimi. No harm was done, but that didn't mean she had to feel any the better for it. Temper always seemed to work this way; relieving for a while, but that quickly gave way to guilt.

"So why are we in here? You know I'll probably end up stealing some of your earrings anyways," Sora crossed her arms and leaned against of the mirrors that lined one of the walls. Mimi's obsession with earrings had become something of an inside joke to the pair. One measly earring holder hadn't a prayer of containing Mimi's collection - perhaps one third - and there were at least two pairs to match with each individual outfit Mimi could dream up.

"You need to start a collection of your own," Mimi countered, sounding quite serious. Sora resisted the urge to beat her head against the mirror. It would be just her luck for it to break and give her seven years of bad luck; starting with having to pay for a broken mirror.

She settled for raising an eyebrow. "You don't honestly believe that, do you?" Sora glanced down at her nails, wishing she would stop the nervous habit of biting them. "Anyways, I have enough hoops and studs to last me forever."

"But you need ones that match with this dress exactly!"

"I'm pretty sure gold matches red, but thanks for your concern," Sora giggled. Mimi glared, but the effect was so pitiful Sora laughed even more. "Come on Mimi, metallic jewellery is in anyways."

"True," Mimi murmured thoughtfully. She pulled out two pairs of earrings, held them up beside Sora's head, and made a face. "Hmm…. maybe…"

Sora waited patiently for Mimi to find this so called perfect pair. Nervous butterflies began to flutter around in her stomach, and she hoped that they could leave soon to relax in Mimi's hot tub. Sora critically turned to the mirror behind her and one hand began to tug at her hair. Red. Who truly wanted red hair? It wasn't exactly carrot-head or ginger red, but nonetheless, red it remained. Mimi kindly called it auburn, but in Sora's mind at least, that bordered on charity.

"Aha!"

Sora tried not to jump from the sudden outburst. Hearing Mimi laugh, she guessed that her efforts were in vain. Oh well.

"What do you think about these?" Mimi asked, sounding confident. She held out the pair of earrings to Sora, who took them.

"They're nice," she finally decided. The chandelier style earrings dripped with red beads the glinted. Naturally, the rest was a gold colour. Red always had been her colour, and thus she had a lot of it in her wardrobe. From a practical perspective, she could use them quite often. Another point was in their favour; if she bought them, she could be done with the awful shopping experience and go home. Or at least, to Mimi's home.

She hastily headed to the cash before Mimi could find another pair she thought were just as good that would cause an endless back-and-forth dilemma. Contented, Mimi finally allowed leaving. As Mimi put the key into the ignition of her pink convertible, she squealed happily.

"What's that about?" Sora asked, smiling.

"I can't believe you two and finally going out!"

"Well, we aren't really, Meems," Sora quickly argued. "I mean, it's not-" how could she put this? "I'd like to and everything, but it's just one date. Let's see what happens and go from there, alright?"

Mimi sighed a long-suffering sigh, as if her friend was being utterly ridiculous. Sora was tempted to beat some sense into her, but decided she would actually like to look her best for Matt, and Mimi would refuse to help unless she behaved. Instead, she chose to let it go. She knew she was right, and nothing Mimi would say could possibly convince her otherwise. She had a feeling Mimi felt exactly the same way.

The drive was mostly silent, and Sora daydreamed, mostly imagining more and more perfect ways for the date to unfold. He would wear a classic white shirt - no, maybe blue - and give her flowers at her door. He would be the perfect gentleman, open the car door for her, and never want to take his eyes off of her. She imagined them dancing close together. Would she be allowed to touch the perfect hair? She had seen his reaction when a rabid fan girl had touched it, and it wasn't pretty.

"Sora? Earth to Sora?" Mimi waved a hand in front of her friend's face. Sora quickly came to, blushing for no reason. Mimi couldn't see into her thoughts, after all. "We're here, darling!" Here was Mimi's house, and Sora grinned, racing Mimi up the walk. Naturally, Sora won. Mimi claimed that as she was wearing heels and Sora was not, it couldn't be considered fair. In response, Sora declared a tie, knowing that without a doubt she could beat Mimi in a race even if Meems wore running shoes and she herself was in stilettos.

"That's more like it," Mimi giggled, trying to imagine beating her athletically gifted friend in a race and failing miserably.

* * *

Mimi moved like a miniature tornado, working on Sora diligently, and giving herself sufficient attention in the downtime. Sora was amazed at her friend's efficiency, and was more than content to let her do the work. Sora was enough of a girl to do her own hair and makeup, but she never quite managed to make it look as professional as Mimi always did.

"I'm using green on your eyes," Mimi informed, dabbing an eye shadow primer onto Sora's eyelids.

"Green?"

"Of course," Mimi spoke factually. "If you use a colour that contrasts your own eye colour, it makes them pop. You have nice eyes, so I'm going to highlight them the most." Sora gave in, and let Mimi take control. She certainly knew more about it than Sora did, anyways.

Mimi fluttered around, skilfully putting on different shades of green shadow and smudging the liner just the tiniest bit. "Alright, I'm not going to put on a lipstick, just use clear gloss, okay?" Sora nodded with her consent, and then Mimi almost assaulted her for daring to move while she tried to put on Sora's mascara. "There, what do you think?" She stepped back, sounding purely business-like.

Sora stared at herself in the mirror. Instant pleasure. Was it really her reflected there? Her eyes looked big and more sultry than she would have thought possible. Smoky eyes worked on her, and her skin was naturally nice. The pimple beginning to bloom on her chin was completely invisible. "You're totally awesome, you know that?"

"It so happens that I do," Mimi joked, beginning to apply her own liner.

Sora glanced over at the clock. The big numbers declared it was 6:37, twenty-three minutes before the boys were due to arrive. Her breath caught a little.

"Sweetie, you should put your dress on now. Give me a minute and I'll zip you up." Mimi grabbed a tube of lipstick and checked the colour. "This is the one I want you to wear. After you get your dress on, put this on and blot. Apply again and stick it in your purse," Mimi demanded, throwing the tube to Sora.

"Always bossy," Sora remarked.

"Always right!" Mimi retaliated.

Sora slipped into the red dress, praying that she hadn't grown overnight. Naturally, it hugged her perfectly to her knees just as it should. It was a siren red, and clung to her curves. Sora couldn't decide whether she felt exposed or sexy. Maybe it was a bit of both.

Mimi zipped her up, and Sora applied the lipstick as directed. Her friend's taste was impeccable. As she zipped up Mimi's dress, Sora heard the doorbell go off. "Oh, god," Sora muttered to herself. "Don't fall apart now," she prayed to herself.

"You'll be fine," Mimi said, grabbing Sora's shoulders and forcing her to look at her straight on. "Everything will be fine, and you will have the time of your life." Mimi let out her own steadying breath, and they went down together to the door.

It was Matt. Sora was relieved and terrified at the same time. She was grateful she wouldn't have to wait for Matt to arrive alone, and fearful of his reaction. She would have greatly loved to hide her head under a pillow, but that wasn't an option in the current circumstances.

"Hey, Matt," she greeted, sounding much more in control than she felt.

"Hey," he responded, grinning his perfect, crooked smile. Sora felt her heart stutter, and thought of how unattractive it would be to keel over right now. "Ready?"

"Of course," Sora said flirtatiously. Matt smiled again, and offered her his arm. As lovely as her daydreams were, nothing could replace the electricity of being with him for real. Now that she was actually with Matt, her tension was beginning to fade away. She turned back, "We'll meet you there, alright, Meems?"

"But of course, darling," she smirked, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Matt did guide me out to his car and open the door for me, just as Sora had imagined he would. It wasn't as sparkly and sugar-coated as dreams were, as his car was a mess and she almost fell over walking down the stairs in the heels Mimi had put her in. Grace was failing her.

The ride passed uneventfully. The slightly awkward conversation managed to bumble along, and gradually became more natural. Sora was surprised to realize Matt looked really happy. It felt nice to know she could have this sort of effect on anyone as handsome and genuinely nice as Matt, and the thought spurred her confidence.

"You look really nice tonight," Matt said, staring fixedly on the road. His hands clenched the wheel, and she wondered why he looked so tense.

"Thanks, you do too," she offered earnestly. He had not worn a white or blue shirt, but had surprised her by showing up in a red shirt. Mimi must have had a hand in this.

He pulled into the parking lot for students, and turned to smile at her. "Ready to take on the world?"

"This is me we're talking about!" Sora laughed. Heat rose through her and seemed to be permanently apparent on her face. This was not an embarrassed flush, but rather one of intense happiness. Sora inhaled the crisp air and shivered. She hadn't thought to bring a sweater or jacket, and Mimi surely wouldn't approve regardless. Too unattractive for a dance.

A warm weight settled across her shoulders, and she looked up, surprised. He had draped his jacket over her, and it felt very soft. Carefully, so he wouldn't see, she inhaled the scent of his jacket. It was distinctly Matt, and giddiness set in. "Come on, slow poke," he teased.

He began to walk towards the door, and Sora half-ran to him, lacing her arm through his as she did so. "Trying to ditch me already, I see," Sora remarked, feigning seriousness.

"Never," he smirked, dipping his head a little closer to hers. As they walked, they gravitated closer together without thinking about it. Their hips were brushing together by the time they reached the gym. The decorations were the standard lame, and, naturally, the gym was already beginning to smell of foul body odour, but Sora wouldn't change it for the world.

Being a musician, Matt had impeccable timing, and they moved together to whatever song the volunteer DJ chose. One fast song segued to the next, and sweat began to gather along Sora's hairline. Unwilling to move away, she clung to him, and he did the same. His hands fell on her waist, and she wrapped her hands around his neck, not daring to touch his hair. She began to sweat more, and worried about sweat circles appearing under her arms.

As this thought crossed Sora's mind, the song flowed into a slow melody. Thankful for the chance to relax a bit, she retreated to arms length and the couple began to revolve slowly in a circle. Sora tried to check the state of her underarms subtly, but this was not as easy a task as one might guess. Matt would think she was bonkers and a half if he caught her at it, and she wasn't much in the mood to show off the sweat stains if she did have them.

She was pulled from her thought by Matt tugging her inwards to him. Their bodies were flush against each other, and she felt heat rise to her face. In an effort to hide it, she lay her head against his shoulder. She could feel his muscles move through his shirt. Her breathing was laboured. His became more ragged, as if to match hers. Tentatively, she ran a hair through his hair. It was very soft, and she stroked it again.

Matt caught her hand. Fighting the instinct to recoil from rejection, she froze. He held her hand against his cheek gently. Their mechanical turning to the music stopped. They looked at each other head on, and he released her hand. Sora didn't move it from where it was, and he lifted her chin, inching closer.

Sora could feel her heart beating in her ears, and everything from the foul smell to the blaring music faded of vaguely into the background. Instinctively, she stood on her tiptoes to meet him in the middle. He settled a hand on the back of her neck, and she felt a fleeting worry about how sweaty and gross she was. The next instant, every thought she had ever had was blocked from her mind.

He was a fantastic kisser. He nibbled her bottom lip, and she shyly opened her mouth. He traced his tongue along her lips, and she crushed herself against him. She pulled back first, resting her forehead against his. Matt looked at her with such intensity that she couldn't help but drop her eyes. Very deliberately, he kissed her head.

"Well well, what do we have here?" Inevitably, Mimi had arrived. Sora bit back a groan as Mimi pulled her aside. "But yes, he won't like the dress and all will go wrong."

"Oh, shut up."

"Sora, what would the fun in that be?"

"Whatever, Meems. I'm going back."

"Have fun. But not _too_ much fun," she winked.

Sora blushed as she went back to Matt. "Sorry about that," she smiled up at him.

"Not a problem," he said. "But…" he looked to the floor. Sora's mind immediately went into disaster mode. Did he have HIV? A girlfriend or four? An evil stepmother who prohibited dating? "I know this is typically said at the end of the date, but what about you ever deserves the typical?" He smirked down at her with the classic Ishida grin. "Would you care for me as a boyfriend, Sora?"

Melting. Gooey and sweet like chocolate. Sora's thoughts stuck together in clumps and she couldn't seem to construct words into proper sentences.

Even if her brain wasn't working, at least her lips were. So she answered him that way.

He received his answer with crystal clarity.

* * *

Awwwwww! Yay for complete mush and zero plot. J

Review and you get a cookie!


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